Now I Get It: What are 'smishing' scams?

Most people are probably aware of the fraud term phishing. When phishing emails are sent, they’re meant to lure users to surrender personal information by purporting to be from the government, a bank, or a reputable company. The end game is to steal someone’s identity.

With smartphone use on the rise, phishing scammers are moving to fresher waters and targeting people via text messages. It’s called smishing, and it’s a combination of the terms SMS text messaging and phishing.

According to a study by Cloudmark, the number of spam text messages designed to defraud people is seven times that of email spam. Research also suggests that cellphone users are three times more likely than computer users to respond to spam.